Yeah, I can't wait to find out what's going on-- and why they've never been noticed till now.

There's cotton growing on the Moon!

I wonder how much the tee shirt they make from it will cost.

Actually, it sounds like the plant experiments are not doing too well so far. I wonder which of the culprits listed in the article are responsible. I think we can discount the launch and the low gravity. I'm a bit dubious about the radiation, too, although I wouldn't be surprised to see mutations if the cotton continues to grow and the other plants sprout. I think the temperature swings are probably the most likely reason, although the article doesn't specify how extreme those swings are-- and you'd think they would have done as much as possible to protect the plants from all these hazards.

Yeah, they didn't make it.
Though reading the article the experiment did seem a little half-hearted as no heater was included. Plant seeds sent to Lunar orbit have done well before as many of the Moon Trees are still alive.

Aww, the poor plants. What did they expect to happen with no heater? They essentially sent them to their doom.

An interesting follow-up on the oddities of Oumuamua: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDZyI83Bj2w

This looks quite interesting. I'll see if I can watch it over a jug of tea in the morning.

Not a JUG of Twisted Tea, I hope.

Oh well, allowing for seasonal adaptation (definitely missing this year), this may be the first good snowstorm we've had since 2017. Go for it.

(However, looking at the snapshot that YouTube chose, I can't help but recall that "Thought" was my nickname from '83-'86.)

That certainly contained a lot of food for thought as to how the data can be interpreted in multiple ways, which alter the size and shape of Yomama-- even turning it into a light sail. And it's kind of weird that it can be at rest relative to the local group, but still manage escape velocity from the Solar System. I'm not sure if I quite understand that part. Unfortunately the scientist spent a lot of time making irrelevant arguments, like Einstein's reluctance to accept quantum theory, which gave him kind of a von Daniken vibe.

Orpheus wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:50 am

Not a JUG of Twisted Tea, I hope.

Oh well, allowing for seasonal adaptation (definitely missing this year), this may be the first good snowstorm we've had since 2017. Go for it.

Yeah, and I have tomorrow off. Why not?

Some new evidence that complex life on Earth could be much older than previous thought.

Well, that's fascinating and could definitely be interpreted as good news for the possibility of multicellular life on other worlds, if those little guys were indeed linked to that brief oxidization event that he talks about. On the other hand, it may indicate that life may not diversify and evolve as quickly when it achieves multicellularity as we thought it did, giving complex life another hurdle to overcome.

I would go with the oxidation event though as an explanation. Earth's environment was likely pretty hostile yet. I have often wondered though if there had been previous dynasties of life on Earth.

It's too bad we can't know the microscopic details of their anatomy-- I'd be surprised if they didn't have DNA, but what about chromosomes and internal cell structure. They could have been quite alien.

I imagine that they'd have DNA but it's possible that they didn't have a cell structure considering their age.

That's true, at least not very complex structure. But it makes you wonder what the possible variations are.